On the move

Stewart Oades has been elected to serve a second two-year term as president of the Freight Transport Association.

Oades took over as FTA President from Andrew Haines in April 2009. He has been on the FTA Board since 2007,

He is a director of Palmer and Harvey, and a trustee of international development charity Transaid. Oades has over 30 years’ experience in the logistics industry. He has an honours degree in business studies and a CPC which he was awarded by FTA in the early 1980s.

In June he will be taking on a marathon challenge when he leads a 14-day cycle ride around the UK in aid of Transaid’s Professional Driver Training Project, which is helping to save lives on Africa’s roads. He will be accompanied through each FTA region by a local team.

Frank Hopper has retired as chair of the statistics committee for British Industrial Truck Association. He will be succeeded by David Miller, from Toyota Material Handling UK.

Hopper gave 26 years service to the committee, 16 as chair. The statistics committee analyses industrial truck sales statistics, contributed by, and only made available to, BITA members.

Hopper said: “The UK has the most comprehensive range of statistics available, far greater than other large European countries, and we place a higher importance on them.

“In 2010 the market expanded at a rate of approximately 10 per cent after a period of contraction, but over 26 years, in good times and not so good times, BITA members have been scrupulous about the data they supply and their statistics continue to provide essential market intelligence.”

Secretary general James Clark said that BITA’s objective is to continue to inform its members in the most efficient and confidential way possible.

Miller said: “Looking to the future, my priorities as chair of the BITA Statistics Committee are to maintain the high quality and timeliness of the statistics while working more closely with Systematics International, which processes the data, and Oxford Economics, which helps us with market forecasting, to ensure BITA members get most value and analysis from our statistics.”

BrainNet elects new board

The BrainNet Supply Management Group is to elect a new supervisory board in response to its increased internationalisation.